Virtual universes (VUs) or virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments intended for its users or residents to inhabit and interact via avatars, which are personas or representations of the users of the virtual universes. These types of virtual universes are now most common in massively multiplayer online games such as Second Life®, which is a trademark of Linden Research Inc. in the United States. Avatars in these types of virtual universes, which can number well over a million, have a wide range of business and social experiences.
Many areas within a virtual universe are popular leading to areas becoming overcrowded or full. When an area becomes overcrowded or full, movement and response times slow down preventing effective interaction with the environment. When an area becomes full, prior art virtual universes manage this problem by creating a new ‘instance’ (or duplicate) of the environment to support a new set of avatars. This requires significant resources and skill in order to expand and create a virtual world that can accommodate multiple instances of a defined space. This may not provide an optimal experience, as most users do not like overcrowding or slow response times. Virtual space owners do not like the added computing resources needed to manage a virtual world with a high number of avatar interactions within a small space.